Thursday, December 18, 2008

What if they held an election and nobody came?

QD3 In your opinion, when will the next European elections be held?2009 26%Other 7%Don't know 67%

QD3 Of the respondents who answered with the correct year 2009

June 2009 8%Others 2009 18%2009 26%Others 7%Don't know 67%

These are igures from the latest Eurobarometer Report on the forthcoming European Elections that were released today. From these figures it looks like another very low turnout must be expected next June.

Calculating voting probability as described (answers 1-8 counted as low probability and 9-10 as high probability) it is highest in Belgium where voting is compulsory (61%), Netherlands (58%) and Denmark (57%).

According to the same criteria voting probability is lowest in Portugal (76% are not likely to vote), UK and Austria (75%).

It just shows how utterly irrelevant the European Parliament is in people's lives.

3 comments:

I have often wondered at what point elections become illegal,in the recent past we have seen thatcher elected on thirty-three%,and the marxist scum with twenty-something%,how low does it have to go before it is declared void?

Agh, come on, that's rather facile. There's a difference between whether it does have an impact on people's lives (true) and whether the population understands it (largely false). Whether you agree with it or not is another issue, but you cannot doubt that the EP has clout. The real question is whether it has legitimacy.

Oh it has clout alright, but whether it is functionally irrelevant well that is a different thing. If people do not see its clout then in their lives it is irrelevant.One does wonder, given the commenys by Margot where accepts that there is a point where the whole project becomes irrelevant, and that poinyt has somthing to do with turnout. A PQ has goner in askingthat very question;